BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
LAGOS — Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday, warned that the planned fuel subsidy removal, devaluation of the national currency and hike in electricity tariff would set the nation on fire, as the social consequences would be unbearable.

This came as NLC accused the Federal Government of deliberately avoiding discussions with organised labour on the controversial planned fuel subsidy removal, but making frantic efforts to destabilise the labour movement.

At an interactive meeting with journalists in Lagos, leaders of NLC challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to subject the planned subsidy removal to a referendum since it was not part of his electioneering campaign.

Represented by Deputy President of NLC and the Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero and Owei Lakemfa, NLC said it would also move against additional state creation, arguing that most of the existing states are not viable.

NLC leaders said the issue of naira devaluation, hike in tariff and fuel subsidy removal had gone beyond organised labour, but on the court of Nigerians who had said emphatic no to the anti-people policies, arguing that they were time bomb for chaos and social unrest/in the country.

According to Owei Lakemfa “As at now, the federal government has not consulted labour on its plan to remove subsidy of fuel. NLC is not averse to any discussion because we are in the industry of negotiation and collective bargaining and we are the mouthpiece of the Nigerian people. If NLC does not champion this cause, other people will take up the issue and fight like it happened in Egypt and this would have social consequences in the country.”

He noted that labour had commenced sensitisation of workers and the masses on how to resist government’s plan to remove fuel subsidy and other anti-people policies, arguing that the policies were simply anti-development and Nigeria.

According to him, “Nigerian workers and the masses have never benefited from the various policies of the present administration stressing that the result of such policy reforms had been closure of factories and job losses.

Nigerians have been deceived that deregulation would bring down the prices of petroleum products as well as make them available but that never happened, instead what we had was prices going up every day. Government are implementing different polices which had made a mockery of minimum wage which translates to N600 per day